A New, Improved This Green Life

I am very excited to announce that there is a new, bigger, better, more attractive This Green Life on the NRDC website.

Eight years after launching the original, I have finally organized the nearly 100 columns into useful categories like Animals, Health, Waste (Not!) and Spirit and Meaning. Now you can easily find what you’re looking for and see what’s popular and new. You an also check out my personal favorites.

The section has a fresh new look, reminiscent of springtime. (What a relief in the dog days of summer we’re slogging through now!) It also has the story of how This Green Life came about, which I think you’ll find interesting. Do take a look, then come back here to let me know what you think.

And if you haven’t yet, why not subscribe too. I promise you won’t get zillions of mailings — just one a month at most about green living, and only from me.

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24 Responses to A New, Improved This Green Life

I love This Green Life! Sheryl’s writing is so engaging. She is passionate about making the world a better place for every living thing, and she offers practical solutions to everyday problems that I struggle with all the time. It’s important for us to know what’s at risk, and empowering to know that I can make a difference. And I really appreciate the broad range of ways to change your life, depending on how much time/money/energy you’re able/willing to put into it.

After years of hitting it, loving it and moving on, I am thrilled to now have easy access to one place where I can browse and peruse at leisure. The new design provides a refreshing and lovely context. Thank you, Sheryl, for all that you do. Your fan forever…

Hi Sheryl,
What a great redesign! I’m looking forward to checking it all out! Question, what is your stance on the CFL bulbs?
I write a blog about the dangers of them. They are too numerous to mention but most urgently am trying to spread the word.
There are not enough disposal measures in place which can cause us to polluting our own ground water.
They need to be recycled at Toxic waste facilities. Home Depot and Ikea will take them but how many people will drive there to dispose of a cracked mercury leaking lightbulb?

Climate change is scary. Why? Because there doesn’t seem to be or that there is going to be enough done soon enough, remember what tipping point means. One reason I don’t donate to most environmental organizations anymore is that they seem to softball the subject when it comes to what needs to be done and why when it comes to their Green tips pages. They just don’t seem to be as serious as you would think the situation requires.

The first thing I did on your new page was go under transportation and see if there was even the smallest suggestion that a return to a national speed limit of 55mph would be a good idea. I have noticed that even the most staunch green supporters find this sacrifice just too harsh. I understand they want to save time. Well Time is something we are running out of.

But you see it isn’t just about the energy saved and less carbon exhaust put out by driving at lower speeds. It’s about a mindset that long ago was the kind of thinking that got us to this point of waste and pollution. For one thing urban sprawl is much more acceptable if ridiculous distances required to get back and forth from jobs can be done more quickly. For another thing, the idea that an auto needs to go faster than any legal limit and accelerate like a rocket is a factor in designing an auto. If the 55mph was in affect and enforced, more efficient auto would be easier to design.

There is an argument about safety in regard to 55mph. I can attest to that myself. Going 55mph is unsafe if you are one of the very few doing it!

Larry, returning to a national speed limit of 55 mph is not the top measure on my list for fighting climate change, but I’ve no objection to it either.

My column deals with personal action, not policy, and I support some pretty radical stuff, such as taking public transit instead of the car or, heaven forfend, walking.

I do agree that it’s vitally important to do something serious about climate change asap — and with that in mind, I encourage you to reconsider supporting environmental organizations, whether or not they’re pushing for the policy you think best. They’re still working for the same goal as you — and who else is?

I still hope that I’ll receive the periodic email of This Green Life. I have considered and used some of your ideas out here – yes – in northern California. It’s just as environmentally helped as New York City (well, OK, it’s greener, brighter, sunnier and snowless – but just as in need of environmental help).

I like your web version. I think that it would enlarge – amplify – NRDC’s message to more people.

Your new blog is absolutely beautiful – I love the graphics, they draw me in to read more things! But I was sorry to see the comments to your articles are gone – I’ve left several over the last two years. All the best,

All is not lost! For reasons I have no control over, I have never been able to take comments on the main site (the place with the new design at http://nrdc.org/thisgreenlife) so I have always had to take comments here on this separate blog site (http://thisgreenblog.com). Your comments should are all still be here as the blog site has not been changed. Thanks for contributing to the conversation. Best, Sheryl

ABOUT

A green living columnist for environmental organizations in her spare time, Sheryl Eisenberg wrote This Green Life for NRDC from 2004-2014 and previously wrote Greentips for the Union of Concerned Scientists. In her "real" life, she designs websites with her firm Mixit Creative for environmental groups and other non-profits and small businesses.